Cowboy Sunday

Our church hosts a great event called "Cowboy Sunday" complete with a tri-tip BBQ, bluegrass music, horse rides, a kid's rodeo and more! We had a wonderful time and the stormy weather actually held off until the day was over!

Our Little Boy

Case has recently discovered the baby doll cradle in his sister's room. (Papa Call & Auntie Loie made it for me when I was little!) He likes to crawl inside and hang out...rocking himself every now & then or playing with his toys and books. Listen for the crash and "uh oh" at the end of the video!

Our Monterey Trip

In mid March we took the kids down to Monterey, combining business and pleasure on a fun trip. I was able to get in on part of the annual Pistachio Conference that ENE exhibits at and Anthony and I had a great time taking the kids to a fun museum and to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! They absolutely loved it!

Anthony and I, of course, were absolutely exhausted! We fully realize that taking a vacation geared towards our young family is a tiring venture! Here's a few of the reasons why:

• 2 hotels in 3 days (packing & upacking, lugging suitcases/stroller/Pack-n-Play/laptops/etc.)
• 2 episodes with 1 carsick child. Thank you Lord for ziplock bags, water bottles and diaper wipes!
• Eating every meal out with 3 young children. Enough said.
• Keeping short attention spans entertained with walks, snacks, museums, aquariums, arcades, and more snacks!

A Funky sea horse!

Sharks!

Hanne's 3rd Birthday

We woke the slumbering princess with a pink cupcake and a number 3 candle! Breakfast in bed was a bit tough for this little sleepy head!

We had a party with Elsje, her best little buddy, who turned 3 just 5 days after Hanne's birthday! They had special princess cakes as well as lots of pink cupcakes with oodles of sprinkles.

The girls actually gave each other the same gifts - Thumbelina dress-up dresses!

Hanne has been in love with this particular outfit...wearing it as often as I'll let her...and of course taking naps in it!

More Fun Farm Show Stuff

Case spent most of his free time hanging out with the little John Deere pedal tractor. He couldn't ride it, but he could push it!

Getting special balloons from the balloon guy working at the booth next to Papa Erick's was a big deal for the girls.

Just a few of the daily MUSTS on our list at the show:

1. Making the long trek over to the Dairy section of the show grounds to see the beautiful Dairy Princesses and get a free chocolate milk.
2. Stopping in at the Exhibitor Lounge trailer to get free pink donuts with sprinkles.
3. Having oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast (after the donut of course!) at Papa's show trailer.
4. Taking make-shift naps in the Tahoe out in the parking lot. This of course, was more for mommy's sake than the kids.
5. Making at least a dozen trips to the nearest bathroom or porta-potty, each on an emergency basis.
6. Eating candy and jerky at Daddy's show trailer, because kids always know who has the stash of goodies!
   
   The girls LOVED this booth at the show! All kinds of fun playhouses and neat stuff. This pirate ship was the definite favorite!
   
   The kids were also very impressed with the "giant silver flying horse" art sculpture that one company had on display in their booth. Lots of fun stuff for little kids to see and do at a farm show!
   
   
   
   

February Farm Shows

We took the kids with us to the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA in February and had a great time! Six days of keeping kids warm, fed, unharmed & entertained at the show grounds and five nights of ants in motel rooms, lost blankies & fuzzy cartoon channels! We survived and are better parents for it all!

The girls enjoyed playing in Daddy's scrapers - they made perfect hideouts for a couple of rough and tumble princesses-on-the-run!

Case & Hanne enjoyed "helping" Daddy set up his booth. They must have played with those tools for at least an hour straight.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Lena and Hanne waited fairly patiently while Mommy got the lights on the tree before they began to decorate with a vengeance. I had flashbacks of us kids being banished from the living room while my mom strung out all the lights in the middle of the floor, trying to find that ONE bulb that was making the entire string not work!

This year I had a section of lights on one string that flickered just a bit as I was putting them on...and then of course didn't work at all after the entire tree got decorated! Where was this patch of darkness on our tree? Right on on the front! Oh well, it has since been redecorated many times over with paper snowflakes, bits of wrapping paper and curling ribbon that our pack-rat daughters deem to be lovely ornaments!

Lena's Birthday Party #2

We had a second family birthday party and of course just had to bake a cake AND more cupcakes to make sure we would have plenty! Case enjoyed all the attention from aunties, uncles, grandpas & grandmas! He did his best to steal the show!

Lena's Birthday Party #1

We decided very last minute to have a casual pizza party with friends...Lena loved having all her little buddies over and we sure enjoyed some good visiting with the other mommies and daddies!


Every time I turned around, Hanne was working on another cupcake!


One very tired little brother!

Lena's Birthday Breakfast in Bed

Lena's Birthday was back before Thanksgiving, but I have some catching up to do with this blog so here we go! We have this tradition in our family of giving a special breakfast-in-bed on your birthday. But I am generally on the phone with guys at the shop starting around 5:45 AM so when the Birthday Girl woke up at about the same time - Mommy & Daddy had to scramble! All the kids woke up...I told the guys to give me 15 minutes and Anthony kept them entertained in our room until I could quickly frost a cupcake and light a candle! Whew! Tradition saved!


What five year old doesn't enjoy cupcakes for breakfast? Now, how do we get our kids to sleep past 6 AM?

Halloween

Well - its official. We are bad parents. We (fake) tattooed our six month old little boy with a couple of barbwire tats to authenticate his cool punk rocker Halloween costume. Don't you love the Mohawk! Thanks Auntie Beth for the idea!

So Case was a cute lil punk rocker; Hanne was a little red "strawbaby" with her beloved tutu & tights and Lena was one cool cat burglar complete with a pillowcase full of jewels and loot!

Auntie Beth helped us do some fun trick-or-treating in town with friends (note the pink rubber boots-it has been raining!)

We also made yummy sour cream spice cookies today and had fun frosting and decorating. I bet Hanne got about the same amount of frosting in her mouth as she got on her cookies!

Porter Pumpkins

We made two trips to the pumpkin patch this year! Mommy combined business with pleasure on the first trip; visiting a pruning customer's pumpkin patch and World's Largest Corn Maze where we got some really great warty pumpkins and unusual gourds.

Our second trip was just the day before Halloween to our local pumpkin patch to get good carving pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns! Check out Hanne in her jack-o-lantern hat she made at preschool!

Daddy did a great job helping the girls carve 'em up!

SURPRISE!!!!!

Guess who is tagging along with Ashley to visit the Texas relatives!!! The Porter kids and Mommy!! Surprise, surprise!! We are so excited and can't wait to see the Reed Family!

Lena wanted to keep the suitcase out and start packing tonight...she also told Daddy that she wouldn't be going to school tomorrow because we needed to go to Texas! She was quite disappointed to find out that it was "more than 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 days?" away!

Old Lady Shopping In Small Town

We were absolutely needing food in our house - the girls have had PB&J two meals in a row - so I went grocery shopping at SavMor tonight. I loathe this over-priced, under-stocked establishment but it happens to be 5 minutes away from my house and with 3 kids...it fits in the schedule!

So I go in around 9:30 PM after the kids are in bed and Anthony is at home. I'm wearing jeans, flip flops and a scrubby old t-shirt, my hair isn't that bad but no makeup. I bought Anthony this yummy looking 6 pack (that I can't even drink-still nursing) along with the rest of the groceries and THE STUPID CHECKOUT GUY DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR MY ID!!!

I was insulted! This is the first time this has happened to me! I AM OLD! Granted - I don't believe that I've purchased alcohol since way before Lena was born, but still...have I aged that much in six years? Apparently! So I came home and ate a large bowl of ice cream!

Messy Girls

Last week Lena stayed home from Sunday School because she was sick...but not too sick to get completely dirty playing in the backyard! She dug around in the dirt and made a picnic with little piles of dirt, rocks and grass. Here she is sampling some of her food.


Hanne was helping Mommy make chocolate cupcakes for Daddy's birthday earlier this month. This insane fondness for chocolate must come from Mommy's side of the family!

Lena's School Bike-a-thon

On your marks, get set, Go!


Is everbody passing me? Lena did get passed a few times but she never crashed!


The cheering section: Daddy, Hanne & Case (Mommy was taking the pictures).


Lena with her "Big Buddy" Domin from the sixth grade. They get to spend time with their buddies every Friday.